Improvement in railway-signals



'c. smmuus. Railway-Signals.

N014? 78 Patented Feb.3.1874.

Wilflesses UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE.

CARLTON SAMMONS, or POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN RAILWAY-SIGNALS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 147,178, dated February 3, 1874; application filed July 19, 1871.

flap or cover, which is connected by suitable wires to the operating-lever at the switch, so that the light may be displayed or hidden from view, at the will of the operator, all of which will be more fully described hereafter.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of my invention. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same. Fig. 3 is an end view of the signal-box alone.

N P represent a box of any suitable construction, inwhich the signal-lamp is to be placed, and which has a door, It,'on one side, through which the lantern is inserted and re- 7 moved, and a hinged flap or door, A, on the other, which opens, preferably, upward, so as to cover or uncover the lens B, through which the light is displayed. There will be one or more of these boxes used, as the curve in the road, inequality of the ground, or other circumstances may require, which will be placed at such a distance from the switch that the engineer, coming suddenly upon one of them, may have ample time to stop his train before reaching the switch. Upon the top of the box is journaled a shaft, E, to which the flap A is secured, and which has a counterweight, d,

attached to one end, so as to insure the prompt.

may be extended onward indefinitely, and connected to any desired number of signals, so

that all of them may be opened or closed by a single movement of the hand-lever. But, in case it should be desired to connect the signals together by a single wire, the double-acting lever E may be dispensed with, and the one D substituted in its place-the counter-weights serving to'close the flaps as soon as the lever was moved toward the right or left, as the case might require.

The weight j on the hand-lever will in all cases be sufficiently heavy to overcome the weight of the flaps and counter-weights, so that when the lever is moved to any desired position it will remain there.

Having thus described my invention, I claim I In a railroad-signal, the combination of the weighted lever H and wires M with the lever O, shaft E, and hinged flap A of a signal light or lantern, substantially as shown and described.

CARLTON SAMMONS. 

